Visit to the desert

Fo shizzle my nizzle!

Once again we started our day at Sulabikhat Nature Reserve to search for the Long-tailed Shrike. After some time in the reserve Stefan noticed a strange Acrocephalus song in the reed. After some searching it turned out to be the Long-tailed Shrike that was singing! We had excellent views of this magnificent bird!

Long-tailed nice Acrocephalus

Turkestan shrike

The plan was to go to Abdali Farms but first Abdulrahman took us to a friend’s garden in Kuwait city where a group of six Grey Hypocolius has settled for the winter.

Grey Hypocolius

On our way to Abdali we also stopped at Sabriya Farm but it was almost totally empty except for one Steppe Grey Shrike and a male ochrorus Black Redstart.

At Abdali it didn’t take long before we found the Common Babblers. At least nine birds were present at the site today and were showing nice at times.

Rare Common Babbler

Before Abdulrahman drove back home he showed us the way to Ratqa Desert close to the Iraqi border. Unfortunately the place is popular among bird shooters, but birding close to the fence was quite productive and we found two nice Mourning Wheatears here.